Reporter

Late in the evening of March 14 this year, Jean Govinden walked into Anthony Ghalloub's family mansion on a quiet West Ryde street.

The 32-year-old business owner and keen archer was a desperate man.

He was due to marry a cousin of Mr Ghalloub's in a matter of weeks but had fallen on hard times.

His employment services company had closed weeks earlier and, unknown to even his fiancee, he was out of work.

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Police believe he may have asked for a loan from Mr Ghalloub, a wealthy investor in the Lebanese community, or have been owed money by him.

After half an hour of heated discussion and in a final show of desperation, the Mauritian-born Mr Govinden from Rouse Hill walked into an en suite in the family home, put a shortened .22 calibre gun to his head and pulled the trigger while Mr Ghalloub, his wife, Veronica, and their two children aged 12 and eight cowered nearby.

Since the tragic suicide in the multimillion-dollar Winbourne Street East home, dozens of investors have come forward claiming the well-dressed father and businessman is one of the worst fraudsters in Australian history.

Fairfax Media has interviewed 10 alleged victims, many of them related to Mr Ghalloub, and has seen bank documents showing they have lost almost $30 million between them. They have had meetings with 50 other alleged victims across Sydney and believe there are almost 200 people owed hundreds of millions of dollars.

Most were introduced to Mr Ghalloub by family members, some more than 20 years ago.

''We saw that others were doing well through him so we jumped on the bandwagon,'' one alleged victim, Elena*, said. With her family, she mortgaged properties to invest $1 million. ''Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would end like it has.''

Most were given simple contracts detailing the principal investment, interest rate and returns, but they say Mr Ghalloub refused to tell them where the money was being invested.

After receiving small returns, the money dried up in 2008.

His alleged victims say he claimed the Australian Tax Office had frozen his accounts because he unwittingly transferred money to a suspected drug dealer. Yet the supposed court case in which he cleared himself does not exist.

In October, he claimed to have been kidnapped and threatened on his way to collect his children from school. But Fairfax Media spoke with two men who were on the phone to him about this time and they refute his claims.

Meanwhile, his alleged victims have suffered severe financial strain. One, Eddie*, 65, is ''struggling to make ends meet'' with a debt of more than $1.2 million. Another sold her house ''for peanuts'' days before she was to be evicted.

As his alleged victims lost their homes, Mr and Mrs Ghalloub bolstered their property portfolio, which includes four houses in Winbourne Street East and a house in Terrigal shared with Mr Ghalloub's father, Raymond.

His alleged victims were left with one burning question: where has all the money gone?

Eastwood police and the Fraud Squad have begun investigating after receiving information on 35 cases of individuals owed up to $6 million each. An investigation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission was handed over to police because it was alleged fraud rather than a breach of financial services laws, an ASIC misconduct officer told an alleged victim.

Over the years, Mr Ghalloub hinted at where the money was - the World Bank, Hong Kong - but his alleged victims believe he ran a Ponzi scheme.

Fairfax Media found disgraced Keddies lawyer Tony Barakat appears to have been affected, having loaned Mr Ghalloub $200,000, according to a creditor's report.

With pressure mounting, Mr Ghalloub promised his alleged victims they would start receiving money between October and November. Then, in a dramatic climax on Halloween, he admitted he had ''lost it all'' and withdrew to an acute mental health ward at Royal North Shore Hospital.

Mrs Ghalloub declined to comment when contacted by Fairfax Media. Four properties owned by Mr and Mrs Ghalloub were quietly put on the market last month but the auctions scheduled for Saturday were withdrawn.

The alleged victims, who fear they will never see their money, are desperate for action. Many are furious at what they perceive to be a lack of action by authorities.

A police spokesman said collating and assessing the allegations of investment fraud was a ''complex process'' that could take some time.

Mr Govinden's father was too devastated to talk to Fairfax Media and was awaiting an April coronial inquest into the death of a man described as huge in stature and in heart.

"He was a gentle giant," said one friend from the Northern Archers Club where Mr Govinden was the treasurer. "Just a truly lovely bloke."

Another friend, Roger, who went on hunting trips in remote NSW with Mr Govinden, said he was always smiling.

He had grand plans to marry his fiancee and organise a hunting trip to Africa with Roger and his future brother-in-law.

"But he was a very private person, I think he kept a lot to himself," Roger said. "He liked to be seen as successful, he would always fight over paying for dinner, so I think we’ve all really struggled to understand what happened."

*Names were changed as the alleged victims wished to remain anonymous.